WWDC 2014

The Gillmor Gang — Robert Scoble, Keith Teare, Benedict Evans, Dan Farber, and Steve Gillmor — finally have a full picture of the two major mobile platforms. Google I/O certainly lived up to expectations as a checkoff of the major food groups: wearables, carables, set top boxables, and so on.
Android L and iOS8 conspire to reflect the convergence around the notification bus… Read More

The Gillmor Gang — Dan Farber, Kevin Marks, Robert Scoble, and Steve Gillmor. The setup: a delicious Apple muscle-flexing that to some somehow escaped the gravity of the Post Jobs era into orbit. We barely got to all the delights in the candy store — even upstarts with plenty to lose like the Box guy sat in the front row with a grin on his face at the sheer fun of Apple’s… Read More

At its WWDC conference this week, Apple unveiled a scaffolding of sorts that allows developers to control smart home devices like light switches, thermostats, garage doors and more. This is called HomeKit, and it promises to be flexible and powerful — but its success will lie in hardware adoption. Read More

Apple has a new feature in iOS 8 that will surface app suggestions on the bottom left screen of your locked iPhone depending on your location, according to developers posting to the MacRumors forums. These include apps already installed on a user’s device, but also suggestions from the App Store that haven’t yet been purchased or downloaded, too.
The suggestions show up in the… Read More

Apple has made some changes to its core inter-device sharing protocols in iOS 8, including AirPlay and AirDrop. AirDrop, the simple file sharing mechanism introduced in OS X Lion and iOS 7, now works between Macs and iOS devices; and AirPlay, the video and audio streaming protocol that plays back music and movies from iPhone, Macs, etc. on Apple TV and approved accessories, will apparently… Read More

Among the many announcements made during the two-hour keynote at WWDC yesterday, three were targeted specifically at game developers: SceneKit, new functions in SpriteKit, and Metal, a new framework that opens the door for vastly better performance in higher-end games on iOS, and does it in a way that Google simply can’t respond to because of the way Android works. Read More

Apple’s keynote for WWDC 2014 happened Monday morning, and there was a lot to digest, both for attendees and those watching at home. Apple didn’t announce any new gadgets at this year’s event, but it did upend the world of iOS and make huge changes to OS X on the desktop, which will translate to big shifts both for developers and end users.
Myself and new TechCrunch writers… Read More

Apple gave us a lot to digest at today’s WWDC event, including big announcements about iOS 8, Mac OS X Yosemite, and a new programming language called Swift.
But even with two hours to present, Apple still couldn’t fit everything in. The company mentions dozens of new features to be released when iOS 8 hits this fall. Read More

Something I will never have is a Ferrari FF, a four-seater supercar that costs more than my life and all my worldly possessions combined are worth. But the car is notable not just for its beautiful matte paint job, super high price tag and precision engineering – it’ll also be among the first cars to ship with Apple’s CarPlay in-vehicle infotainment system built-in. I got… Read More

Apple showed off a lot of new stuff today, so much so that it’s actually hard to process. But from a macro perspective, one thing is clear: iOS 8 actually represents much more of a shift than did iOS 7 last year, despite the fact that the visual changes in iOS 7 threw users and Apple-watchers for a loop. Read More

With the launch of iOS 8, Apple today released a number of new developer tools for its mobile operating system. The new iOS SDK, which Apple CEO Tim Cook called “the biggest release since the launch of the App Store,” includes over 4,000 new developer APIs and changes.
One thing developers will love about this release — besides the new Swift programming language —… Read More

While Apple has a reputation for building beautiful hardware and powerful software, recent forays into the cloud, including MobileMe, iCloud, and Siri, have been found wanting by many.
At today’s WWDC event, Apple demonstrated that it’s making significant headway on the cloud front with the announcement of iCloud Drive, advanced photo storage and syncing, and most importantly… Read More

At its WWDC developer event today, Apple surprised all of the developers in the audience by launching a new programming language called Swift. This new language seems to be poised to replace Objective-C as the main programming language on Apple’s platforms.
Swift will use the same LLVM compiler and runtime as Apple’s Objective-C implementation, so Swift and Objective-C code can… Read More

At its WWDC event this morning, Apple announced that the coming update to its mobile operating system, iOS 8, will have a public beta period this summer. Developers will be able to download it today, but Apple is breaking new ground by bringing both its mobile and desktop operating systems to the public before their final releases. Read More

We’ve seen hundreds of so-called “smart” connected devices pop up over the last few years, but with that proliferation of devices has also come confusion about what device works with what smartphone platform. Apple is eliminating some of that confusion with HomeKit, a new toolkit for developers to pair their iPhones with different smarthome devices. Read More

Over the last few years, dozens of devices and thousands of apps have emerged to help users track their activity levels, lose weight, and get more in shape. But Apple didn’t really have its own fitness app, until now. Today at WWDC, Apple formally introduced HealthKit, the company’s first real big foray into health and fitness tracking, and Health, an app for viewing all that info. Read More

Apple kicks off its Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco today, with a keynote address this morning. It looks like the show for 2014 will focus heavily on new software, including (confirmed by banners spotted on the show floor) iOS 8 and the next version of OS X.
Through leaks and rumors, we’ve heard lots about a potential health tracking platform addition for iOS, as well as… Read More

iOS developer Patrick McCarron spotted something interesting in the original press release for Apple’s WWDC event next week from back in April – for the first time, the company will be streaming live video of both the Platforms State of the Union and the Apple Design Awards for registered developers. The State of the Union is arguably the more important keynote for a developer… Read More

Starting Monday, Apple will be unloading a week’s worth of news and resources for software makers at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco at the Moscone Center. Apple always kicks things off with a keynote at the beginning of the show, wherein it reveals new and exciting things for both developers and consumers alike. This year will be no exception, but what… Read More

Apple will be streaming this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference keynote on June 2 at 10 AM PT (1 PM ET), the company announced today. Apple only sometimes streams live video of its special events, and never announces its intent to do so this far in advance, so this is an interesting development.
The company doesn’t say what’s going to be on the docket at the show, but it… Read More